Pegasus

The silence of the room was more than she could take. No one dared to speak, all of them just sat and stared at her as if there was nothing more interesting in the world. The white walls of the room paired with the cold light, lack of windows and the cheap chairs that the spectators occupied only made the space more unsettling than it already was. The people that surrounded her were of various ages, ethnicities and builds but the blank stare that they directed towards her looked the same on all of them. If you’d ask her how she found herself in this situation she wouldn’t be able to tell you she just opened her eyes and realized that she’s not in her small apartment in Brighton anymore. The last thing she remembered was laying down to sleep after a long day of work, a normal day. So the main questions she needed answered right now were ‘where am I?’, ‘what is going on?’, ‘who the hell are those people?’ and overall ‘what the fuck?’. The fact that she was not kicking and screaming right now was only provided by the sheer shock and surprise she felt that made her freeze up completely. She feared that if she made a move or spoke or even breathed too loud the people that were looking at her would attack, that’s how intense their gaze felt. So she waited, trying to stay calm and often glancing to the door on the other side of the room that remained closed the whole time she spent there. She tried focusing on her breathing, slowly gathering the courage to speak up or run but then the door opened. The people in the room were not affected as the tall man in a grey suit entered, a easy and confident smile on his face didn’t feather as he slowly made his way to her slaloming between her ‘audience’. He was blonde and looked to be only a couple of years older than her, the air of confidence around him scared her but also made her angry. He stopped only a couple of steps in front of where she was sitting and looked down at her tilting his head slightly to the side surveying her face.

“You’re Claire is that correct?” he asked, his voice was deep but somehow light. She nodded slowly not trusting her voice in the moment. “Splendid, come with me please” the man continued and extended his hand palm up in an inviting gesture towards her. She needed a second to realize that he extended the hand to help her get up from the chair. Claire did not know why she decided to accept the help but then again this situation was bizarre enough so she gently placed her hand into his and got up from the chair. She glanced at the people around them but they remained unmoving and continued to stare at her, the man must’ve noticed because then he said “Oh don’t worry those are just monitoring androids they won’t do anything unless I tell them to” the last part of the sentence made her look up at him with unease but he just smiled again, dropped her hand and put his own on the small of her back guiding Claire towards the door that he entered through. She walked slowly and carefully almost as if on autopilot and when they reached the door the man opened it for her. Stepping over the threshold they found themselves in a hallway that looked like the place could be a well aspiring law firm. Navy blue walls, mahogany floor, paintings and mirrors with gold frames, a couple of doors that looked like the ones she just came out of and a couple of potted plants on black tables that were placed along the walls. She did not have much time to take the space in because the man lightly nudged her to continue walking down the long corridor. As they walked the man was on her left side looking forward not bothering to explain who he was and where exactly were they going. When she finally opened her mouth to ask all the questions that bothered her mind he started speaking as if he knew what she was about to ask. “You are probably confused and curious as to where you are and what are you doing here. Everything will make perfect sense shortly I guarantee but first my name is William Davenport I am the CEO of Pegasus Industries. We are currently in one of many Pegasus facilities and you just got recruited to be my personal assistant.”  He said matter-of-factly and Clair stopped walking looking up at him, he was wrong nothing made perfect sense it was the exact opposite.

“What?” she mumbled and her ‘new boss’ stopped walking as well and turned to her clasping his hands behind his back calmly never losing the smile on his face.

“Pegasus is an intergalactic company tasked with the production of androids and nano-tech. We supply the whole of Nexus and its seven moons with top tear product and we have multiple contracts with the intergalactic government” he said “and you just got the privilege to work for me” Claire’s world was spinning; did she lose her mind? Is she dreaming? From what the man just said she was not only on a whole another planet but also a different galaxy and was now the man's personal assistant. She tried to remember if she hit her head yesterday or maybe someone poisoned her oatmeal but then she realized that she did in fact apply for a job in a company named Pegasus about a week ago, but in the online ad there was no mention of ‘we are going to kidnap you to another planet and keep you in a room full of androids and then we’ll explain your daily duties. As far as she was concerned it was 2021 and androids that looked like humans weren’t a thing yet not to mention space travel beyond the earths moon. “As I said I’ll explain everything but now you’ve passed the test and I’m taking you out to celebrate our new collaboration! I hope you like moon coffee!” he said and resumed walking and for some reason, she fallowed not seeing any other option beyond waiting for everything to make sense. They soon reached a large dark brown double door, the man opened it and revealed white skyscrapers, flying vehicles and people in strange outfits. Claire took one step onto the sunshine-filled balcony and the next thing she saw was black splotches that dotted her vision and then everything went dark as she fainted.